[PC] [WINDOWS] Every song shows "Spotify can't play this right now"

[zanstaszek9]

For about 10 days, I am unable to play any song or podcast on my PC, I get an error messege with "Spotify can't play this right now". I tried the downloadable app and Microsoft Store one, disabled acceleration, reinstalled, checked AppData folder and nothing helps.
The online version in my browser (Chrome) on the same PC works fine, as well as my mobile app on Android, both logged on the same account, I'm logging via Facebook.
App version on desktop: Spotify for Windows
1.1.87.612.gf8d110e2

[Dian · Accepted solution]

Hey @zanstaszek9,

Thanks for posting in the Community and the troubleshooting you've tried.

Could you also check the sound drivers on your PC and reinstall/update them? This error message can also be linked to the sound output settings on the PC. It's be good to try different configurations to see what works.

More on that in this thread.

Keep us posted,

Cheers!

[zanstaszek9]

Thanks for the answer @Dian, the second part worked for me.

I opened the Sound settings,  selected a different output device as Default, and then selected the previous one as Default again, and it worked!

I recently installed the Voicemeeter app and then deleted it, maybe it broke something with the sound settings/drivers underneath.
Here is screenshot with the simplified steps:

[Dian]

Hey @zanstaszek9,

Glad to hear it worked.

Thanks to your efforts other users now have a go-to thread with a nice screenshot and an explanation. Thanks for that.

Cheers!

[Rokkprojekk]

This was my issue as well, but my default devices were not incorrect. I do have multiple outputs as I jump from speakers to a Fiio BTR5 often. My solution was opening Spotify, and clicking on desktop volume like in Zanstaszek9's photo but with a left click instead of a right click, then changing my output, trying to play, succeeding, and then going back to my preferred output and everything works as normal again.

[tanjack]

The Desktop app doesn't seem to be working after installing Windows 11. I am currently running Version 21H2 and upon installing the desktop app, whenever I click on a song, it just says "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it". Has anyone else experienced this error?

[Amayy]

Hey there, good thing you asked in the community!

I see you are having issues using the Spotify Desktop App on Windows. Before we move ahead with this, I just want to make sure that you try the following basic troubleshooting steps:

• Log out and log in to check if it is working now
• Clean install the Desktop App from this guide

If none of the above steps work, then let's move on:

• Go to your account info on Spotify.com and log into your account
• Scroll down and click on Sign Out Everywhere
• This will log you out everywhere and might remove your offline content as well
• Now login again and see if everything is working or not

Also one more thing, do all the songs appear grayed out or just a few of them are giving issues? Keep us posted.

[u1_-pvoi6s4x]

I was having the same problem on Win10 21H2 using the Windows Store installation. I bashed my head on a bunch of potential solutions until I gave up and tried installing the standalone Desktop app and that seems to have fixed it. Could be worth a try for you as well.

[tanjack]

Hello, it seems like my audio device needed a driver update. After doing that, I was able to get everything to play. 

[Tcwhiterabbit]

Hey everyone, so I'm on a windows 10 machine and am having the " spotify can't play this right now" message whenever I go to play anything. I've looked up the recommended trouble shooting steps i.e.

1. log out and back in

2. reinstall

3. turn off hardware acceleration 

4. setting the streaming quality to something besides auto

5. I found a thread about going into the files and adjusting a file in notepad as admin, and I couldn't see anything mentioning spotify in that file.

Okay so with all the reinstalls I've done lately I noticed something I thought was odd but it could very well not be. 

1. When installing the program it doesn't seem to let me direct it to where I would like it to be. Now this might be a normal thing for programs, I mostly game so I'm used to being asked where I want the program located.

I have had this issue before and a reinstall always fixed it before. This also happened after changing my graphics card of all things. All other audio is just fine. 

[JMeihuizen]

Plan

Premium

Country

Netherlands

Device

Windows desktop PC

Operating System

Windows 11

My Question or Issue

Keep getting the error message. Spotify works fine on all our devices and another PC, just not on this one. Reinstalled and did everything we can find on the internet, still  doesn't work.

1GB internet connection (Fiber with cable directly into the PC).

PC was bought in another country (Norway), but we changed all settings to the Netherlands.

[Vasil]

Hey @Tcwhiterabbit,

Sorry to see such fate has befallen you.
Thanks to all the extensive troubleshooting you've done so far though, we can more easily narrow down where the issue lies!

As there are two desktop versions of the app (from our Website and from the Microsoft App Store), you may try a complete clean reinstall, installing the version you don't currently have on your machine.
This should do the trick, but let us know how it goes! 🙂

We'll be on the lookout for your response.

[Vasil]

Hey @JMeihuizen,

Thanks for sharing this with the Community!
As there are two Spotify app versions for desktop clients (one from our website and one from the Microsoft App Store, optimized for Windows), we may try a complete clean reinstall.
At the last step from the instructions, try installing the version of Spotify that you currently don't have.

Let us know how it goes 🙂

[GraysonStealth]

Plan

Premium

Country

US

Device

Windows Desktop

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

My Spotify will not play, it keeps giving me the error seen in picture. I have looked up the error on 5 different sites, none of the solutions have worked (disable hardware acceleration, delete local files, disable crossfade, reinstall spotify). I use a GOXLR mini that might be the issue? But it seems like a software issue. This started happening after I had a PC issue where I had constant BSOD and had to replace my RAM, PC is fine now and no system files are corrupt. Any help is appreciated!

[Dian]

Hey @GraysonStealth,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

The described issue is most probably related to the sound output settings. Have you tried reproducing this error without the GOXLR device and using the built in output of the PC? If it works, you can try changing the sound output settings to find out which ones are ok and which ones aren't.

Hope this helps,

Cheers!